Catholic tradition and law demands that churches be erected and dedicated
to the exclusive service of God for the living. The law of the church also
legislates that parishes provide a final resting place for the dead. A committee
was appointed to select and purchase, when opportunity permitted, a plot
of ground for a burial park suitable as to dignity, beauty and convenience.
After due consideration St. Charles congregation purchased on February
25, 1929, twenty-five acres, formerly part of the Cook farm on the
Burlington-Lake Geneva road at a cost of $ 5,000. A committee of five consisting
of John Degen, Lawrence Mangold, Frank Christian, Louis Brehm and William
Wagner, was appointed to obtain information regarding by-laws and modern
plans for design.

The rolling tract of ground had admirably lent itself to classic plans of
landscaping and plotting as the accompanying picture and reproduction of
the blueprint portray. The pastor and congregation are grateful to the Degen
Engineering company of Burlington, designers and surveyors of the new cemetery,
who have so liberally and kindly donated their talent, time and labor to
this project for the St. Charles cemetery.

The ground, a nearly square tract, is broken irregularly into four main sections,
two large circular plots occupying the central ground from east to west and
two rectangular sections to the north and south sides.

Two concentric roads give access to the circular plots. Lateral driveways
north and south on either side give entrance to the outer grounds and join
the circular streets near the entrances on the east and west sides. The cemetery
contains 324 plots, each divided into four sections.

St. Ann street and St. Charles street are the names given to the circular
streets of the south plot. The north circle roads have been called St. Agnes
and St. Aloysius streets. The lateral roads are named Mt. Olivet street and
Calvary street.

There lies only in the future the fulfillment of plans and design for an
artistic and fitting entrance of wrought-iron work and stone, a crucifixion
group in the center of the circle and proper shrubs for landscaping to beautify
St. Charles cemetery and make it a fitting resting place, according
to Canon law, for those bodies who shared in the great struggles of their
souls in lifebodies that were sanctified and made the temples of the
Holy Ghost through the various sacraments which led them to the threshold
of eternity.